Trump Administration to Give $1.8 Billion to Antifa
Shame!
Hey everyone. Happy Memorial Day weekend. Welcome to my long (actually pretty brief), anger-filled rant about Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. Let’s have fun.
TELL ME THIS ISN’T LEGAL.
OK, before we jump into my thoughts on the anti-weaponization fund (hereafter, “slush fund”), let’s at least get into what it is. This past January, the private citizen named Donald J. Trump filed a lawsuit against the IRS - a segment of the Donald J. Trump Administration - because “it” leaked his tax returns to the New York Times and ProPublica.1
It raised eyebrows, because there were rumors that Trump’s own Administration was going to “settle” the lawsuit with private citizen Trump, who was suing for $10 billion. Lots of people were worried that Trump was essentially going to gift himself $10 billion in a classic case of self-dealing and corruption. That didn’t happen, but things did get worse.
This week, Trump announced his actual settlement with the IRS (handled by DOJ): A “fund” of $1.776 billion would be established to compensate victims of “lawfare” under Joe Biden’s Administration. Let’s look at its language directly:
The conduct alleged in the Case and in the Pending Agency Claims is representative of the sustained use of the levers of government power by Democrat elected officials, political and career federal employees, contractors, and agents in order to target individuals, groups, and entities for improper and unlawful political, personal, and/or ideological reasons (”Lawfare” and “Weaponization”). Other well-known examples of Lawfare and Weaponization include the Biden Administration’s abuse of the FACE Act, the Biden Administration’s wrongful labeling of certain parents as domestic terrorists, and the IRS’s targeting of groups based on improper ideological criteria.
It basically creates a fund that allows these perceived “victims” to apply for compensation, and it will be funded by taxpayer money. Who are the victims? So far, at least one former Trump Campaign employee has filed a claim, but obviously the potential payments to January 6th insurrectionists is what is turning heads.
Federal payments to people who beat dozens of police officers and killed one of them is pretty sickening, and is up there with some of the worst stuff this Administration has done. And lots of people are telling themselves this is trolling or an attempt to “own the libs,” but an addendum to the Executive Order establishing the fund tells me that it is neither of those: As a part of the settlement, Trump has directed the IRS to never audit him, his family, or his companies ever again.2 So, say whatever you want, but I think Trump is dead serious, because he wouldn’t include something like that unless he thought he could get away with it.
Another part of the slush fund caught my eye. Here is something buried way at the bottom:
In the event that there is a balance remaining in The Anti-Weaponization Fund’s account(s) after December 15, 2028, The Anti-Weaponization Fund shall transfer such balance before January l, 2029, to the Department of Commerce, Interior, or another appropriate federal government account as designated by the President.
If the slush fund has any money left, Trump gets to decide what he wants to do with it. And “federal government account” is vague enough for me to think he wants to take some of the money with him after he leaves.
I ultimately think Trump truly does want to pay the January 6th insurrectionists because he wants to reward them for the violence they engaged in that day. In his mind, they were loyal and were the ones who actually took action to keep Trump in power, as opposed to the Republicans in Congress.
Whatever. HOW IS IT LEGAL?
Alright, here’s the good news: Even leaving aside the bad politics, I don’t see how this survives a court challenge. Lots of smart legal people have asked who would have standing to challenge Trump’s fund. After all, if you’re not being directly affected by it, how do you claim a grievance?
Well, Congress in particular has a grievance, because by taking money directly from the Treasury Department and handing it out willy nilly, they are taking over the Legislative Branch’s job. This isn’t buried deep in Federal code; it’s right in the first Article of the Constitution:
“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” - U.S. Const. Art. I, § 9, cl. 7
It does not say, anywhere, that the Executive can just create a $2 billion fund out of thin air using appropriated money to the Treasury. And here is the thing: These sort of funds do exist, and the Trump Administration even cites to one that was used to settle a case: Keepseagle v. Vilsack. But the differences here are pretty stark.
In Keepseagle, Congress had already appropriated money to the Treasury to settle the case. Using 31 U.S.C. § 1304, Congress appropriates money to judgement funds so that the Executive branch can settle cases filed against it without having to constantly go back to Congress with a metal cup like Oliver Twist. But in Keepseagle, the case was litigated as a class-action lawsuit and the settlement was approved by a judge. Here, there is no litigation; no approval by a judge; and no class-action. It is just the Executive branch inventing a $2 billion payment scheme out of shoestring.
We are already hearing about GOP pushback against the slush fund, and we are also seeing Capital Police officers filing lawsuits against the fund. The legal nerds honestly aren’t cynical enough, because I think the District Court is going to find that the cops have standing, and that’s before you get to Congress having its legislative power pulled out from underneath it.
OK, but what if they get away with it?
Even if they somehow manage to establish the slush fund and start making payments to people, a future AOC Administration has the power to claw the money back. In United States v. Wurts, SCOTUS said:
[On] March 15, 1932, the Commissioner erroneously approved a refund of taxes paid by respondent for the year 1929. April 30, 1932, a check was mailed to the taxpayer for this erroneous refund. April 26, 1934, more than two years after the allowance of the refund, but less than two years after actual payment, the Government brought this suit to recover the erroneous refund.
The Government, by appropriate action, can recover funds which its agents have wrongfully, erroneously, or illegally paid (my emphasis).
In the same way that Trump can magically create a fund, a future Executive can invalidate it and claw back the payments. And, because this is a settlement with the IRS, the Executive branch can use all the tools it has available to obtain the money it lost, the most effective of which is wage garnishment.
Maybe Enrique Tarrio will work cash jobs for the rest of his life, but my guess is that this fund is nuked before any money starts flowing.
One last thing that is irking me about this whole case: The January 6th rioters have all already admitted that they were not inappropriately targeted by the Biden Administration because they have all admitted that they were guilty.
By accepting a pardon,3 the recipient acknowledges their guilt. If you are going to Google whether or not I’m right, ignore the clanker and listen to me because the Supreme Court says I’m right.
In Burdick v. United States, it explicitly says that a pardon is an imputation of guilt and the acceptance of a pardon is likewise an admission of guilt. SCOTUS has never repudiated that decision and has never said otherwise.4
By accepting Trump’s pardon, the January 6th insurrectionists have already admitted that they were all guilty and that the Biden Administration was correct to charge them. So, where’s the “lawfare?”
Lastly, I am glad that this whole episode has allowed us to get to the bottom of who was behind January 6th. We have finally determined that it wasn’t the FBI, Antifa, or the Capitol Police.5 The Trump Administration has now made it clear who it was all along: Trump’s own supporters.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend. Here is my All-American playlist, which is titled, “Hashtag America, Suck on Some Freedom.” There are two wolves inside each of us, and one of mine is draped in an American flag (the other one is wearing slippers and sleeps like this: “Honk, shoooo, Honk, shoooo.”)
Fun fact: The IRS caught the leaker - Charles Littlejohn - and he is now in jail. He also leaked the tax records during the first Trump Administration, in 2019. So, we have established a fund to compensate people who were “targeted” by the Biden Administration and it stems from Trump being abused by…Donald Trump.
Funner fact: Under the Presidential Audit Program, the IRS audits every President. Many people didn’t know about this and only now know about it because Trump is the first one to resist an audit of his finances.
I think three January 6th insurrectionists have refused Trump’s pardon, but the rest have accepted.
The D.C. Circuit has said the opposite, but that case (which involved Richard Nixon) never made it to SCOTUS.
Fun update: A few months ago I said the Capitol Police officer smeared by the Blaze would be suing the outlet. She filed her lawsuit last month, and the Blaze fired the reporter responsible for the original story. Expect her to see big money.